Stress really ages your cells faster
1 December 2004
by Richard
Conan-Davies
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It has been know for quite some time that stress ages you. Now scientists led by a group from the University of California in San Francisco have found evidence in immune cells of people with chronic stress that their chromosomes don't have their ends fixed up as compared with those people who have suffered no significant stress. The study compared the length of parts of a chromosome called telomeres ( this helps keep cells younger) from women who had to care for a very sick child to those women who did not have a such a stressful life bringing up their children. Those who had the stresful life had shorter telomeres than those who did not have much stress. The study led by Dr. Elissa Epel explained to the university of California that "The new findings suggest a cellular mechanism for how chronic stress may cause premature onset of disease. Anecdotal evidence and scientific evidence has have suggested that chronic stress can take years off your life; the implications of this study are that this is true at the cellular level. Chronic stress appears to have the potential to shorten the life of cells, at least immune cells." |
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